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Touché: Touch and Gesture - Disney Research SHOWstudio Tech Updates

The Touché project is a new sensing technology being developed at Disney Research Pittsburgh by Ivan Poupyrev in collaboration with Munehiko Sato and Chris Harrison.

The technology aims to not only detect touch, such as a finger making contact with a screen, (something that we have all become familiar with) but also to simultaneously recognise more complex configurations of human hands and body as the user interacts with any given object.

During the testing, highlighted in the slightly corporate attached video, Disney have added the touch recognition to computer devices and everyday objects, but amazingly also to the human body and liquids. Using touch sensitivity material a single wire can be connected to make previously unresponsive objects and environments touch and gesture sensitive.

This technology greatly increases the range of touch interactions that will be possible in the future, not only further enhancing touch screens, but also in new scenarios where touch control was previously unusable, which is incredibly exciting.

Imagine being able to control your phone, music player and many other devices by taping your wrist in certain ways; thankfully with the ongoing development of Touché this is becoming increasingly more realistic.